Must be why my parents only lasted 68 years

That’s right – my parental units were married for 68 years. Unfortunately the honeymoon ended when a gay couple entered their lives with their damned 40 years of gay coupleness.

Which is why I’m so glad that at least someone – in this case, the GOP in the great state of Texas – is standing up to this dangerous threat to traditional marriage. I’d hate to see my parents’ tragedy repeated elsewhere.

The Texas Republican Party gives a whole new meaning to the word conservative.

The GOP there has voted on a platform that would ban oral and anal sex. It also would give jail sentences to anyone who issues a marriage license to a same-sex couple (even though such licenses are already invalid in the state).

“We oppose the legalization of sodomy,” the platform says. “We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. Constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy.”

The Lone Star state initially passed a law barring sodomy in 1860. Violators faced anywhere from five to 15 years in prison. The ban was overturned in 2003.

In addition, the platform says that homosexuality “tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit and leads to the spread of dangerous communicable diseases.”

It also states that homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle in public schools and “family” should not be redefined to include homosexual couples.

The 25-page proposal, presented last week as a guide for the state GOP over the next two years, includes other measures including outlawing “sexually oriented businesses” like strip clubs and banning “all pornography.”

I’m in Florida, where we are quite schizophrenic and cannot decide what we are either culturally or politically. But Arizona? Wow. Now that’s a challenge. Although it’s beautiful. I lived there for about a year in the early nineties.